Linux support by brother

Brother is one of the few companies with a longstanding Linux support policy. Most if not all their MFC and other office devices which at least have a USB socket, do have Linux drivers for all device functions. We might almost nickname them "the Linux brothers" or the bro's. Their drivers and thus the setup is pretty uniform across the product range of bro. Good! Also you find many low-price bro's on internet auctions, great bang for da buck there. The MFC-7440N that this wiki entry is about does offer:

USB faxmodem AT command access via gtkterm (cutecom lacks AT command echo, not so cute) - yet gfax does not know the proper AT-commndset for the brother

USB fax with efax-gtk (includes header line from --> to and timestamp, no fax send report on paper, afaik)

Install brother drivers

It's recommended to print out the 'MFC config' or 'network setup' via the "report" (local language may differ) button on the LCD panel of the bro first of all to make sure your LAN is set up OK asf.. Download all drivers from below bro link. Scan & print install work pretty flawlessly. Install .deb packs as usual and follow bro instructions on their webpage which show up after download is complete. This gives you print and scan support straight away.

verifying install

fax USB modem and fax lpd driver install

Faxmodem install requires a little attention (as of 3/2015, may improve later. till today, bro has not yet found the time to repack their .deb file). Basically one must follow bro instructions. Still one may be required to unpack the modem .deb manually and copy all files and run all scripts manually. Also one might be left with manually adding a new lpd printer named BRFAX as described above. The brusbmfc.c code must be altered as instructed by bro as root, run make asf. (Step 6. : Open the following file using a text editor with the "sudo" command. /opt/brother/modem/src/brusbmfc.c Change the 174th line as follows:

replace old line:

static spinlock_t my_lock = SPIN_LOCK_UNLOCKED;

with new line:

static DEFINE_SPINLOCK(my_lock);

also a libusb run time error may occur - to remedy, install via synaptic pack manager the dev and debug versions of libusb (the more the merrier, hard to pinpoint which particular pack was missing). That's all the errors I got, but your mileage may vary.

As of 2015, the regular (mint 17.2 auto suggested) gfax via efax does not work any longer, since the AT commandset of efax grew incompatible (software rot). Having /usr/bin/brpcfax going inside Open/Libre Office is the better way to fax anyhow (proper logging via bro debuglevel 4).

which sounds a lil inconsistent, but all is fine, I believe.

remarks

At march of 2015 brfaxd and usb4brfaxd (a bro binary) were very rare google search terms, producing in fact zero find result by google. For bro firmware update one still needs Windows.

As of 2015 bro MFC's are still excellent to use say in mint Linux 17.2 (both 32/64 bit) or debian (archlinux does not support .deb pack format ). Though there are 3 binaries to be relied on, those are somewhat compatible and bro really modified their Linux stuff minimally over all those years - which means they do it the right - and long term - way.

A module make & make install is necessary after every kernel (headerfile) upgrade. (use a shell script to make that 1 click {i.e. make the module}).

Then the MFC makes it easy to SCAN, FAX, PRINT, COPY using the MFC's mechanical autofeeder (double sided print via flipping sideways the odd pages and then print the even ones, like in Windoofs) under Linux and the hardware is sturdy Japanese industrial strength design. And bro's can be gotten as used units in ultra-low pric€ rang€ really deliv€ring bang on €/buck.

driver install from a user's perspective

If you have a MFC-7440N and want to get it working on a debian, such as Linux Mint 17.2 64-bit KDE live-bootable CD-ROM, the following is interesting to know:

* The Linux mint distro ships with some brother postscript drivers ("foomatic", "BR3"), but they do not fully work on the 7440N. Mint ships with drivers for model number 7450 asf. and will give you lots of white paper sheets transported if you still try to print with them - usually resulting in a paper jam if you try to stop the havoc. You actually need a downloaded brother driver file such as cupswrapperMFC7440N-2.0.2-1.i386.deb and have the original MFC7440N.ppd file. Accept no substitute.

* If you run the scanner installer , you will be asked to type in the model name MFC-7440N from linux-brprinter-installer-2.0.0-1.gz as well as the IP address such as 192.168.100.101 (depending on your net setup) of the printer. It is the same address where the MFC's web interface can be browsed via http://192.168.168.101/main/main.html.

* When the bro installer is finished, you'll be able to print via cups and also use the xsane scan program (scan with automatic sheet feeder supported) which ships with mint Linux. "Copy to ftp" is no problem either.

* To be able to fax out via "OpenOffice writer" requires the USB cable connected (MFC acts as a USB telephone modem). Print, Copy, Scan do not require a USB connection, but can be done via network instead. If you want everything (COPY, FAX, SCAN, PRINT) and use a single cable only, plug in the USB cable and omit the network cable.

* the installer (linux-brprinter-installer-2.0.0-1) will download (if a debian system is detected) :

script files in the same directory from where it is started, once it is finished.

The installer will tell you that it ran

lpadmin -p MFC7440N -v socket://192.168.100.101 -E

and

brsaneconfig3 -a name=MFC-7440N model=MFC-7440N ip=192.168.100.101

to have the scan functions prepared. Provide your individual address instead of above ...100.101 example to manually reconfigure the MFC at a later time. Running brsaneconfig3 is required, else xsane will tell you that 'it cannot connect to the brother scanner'.

It is also worth noting that the all-important MFC7440N.ppd file cannot be simply extracted from the bro driver archive .gz files. Instead some script will generate it via hexdump. To do that manually, find the part in the script with the hexdump. After regular install via bro script, keep a copy of the special file MFC7440N.ppd from /etc/cups/ppd or /usr/share/ppd or /opt/brother/... or /usr/share/cups/model/ .